The hard grind
by Robot Edonista
Summary: 3 October 2002, Naruto episode 1 aired yesterday an excited 15-year fell in love on first sight. That same night he ended up trapped in Konoha. Your every-day Isekai, the protagonist is not and will not be OP this is not that kind of story. I'm not very interested in romance and it's unlikely I will ever focus on it. The F word will be present so be aware.


**This is my first try at Fanfic be gentle please, I did this because I found most Isekai (fall to another world) stories in Naruto FF a bit boring with the protagonist always being a living wiki of the narutoverse. I'm not very interested in romance and it's unlikely I will ever focus on it. English is not my first language I try to do a good job but if some parts sounds not right make me know please.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

October 3, 2002

Dan was browsing his favorite anime forum, these new ISDN modems where really cool, images loaded almost instantly, it only took like five hours to download one anime episode, plus you could even use the phone meanwhile!

"Hmm Naruto seem to be the new big thing" they manage to sub and upload it in only a day that was really rare, Dan managed to avoid getting spoiled by the troll manga readers and found the torrent, just in time, his mother entered the room yelling at him to get ready for high school, he turned the screen off and raced down the stairs, being 15 really sucked.

Many boring hours later Dan came back to the room, after studying, chores, and many annoying things more, his favorite moment of day finally came, namely watching the anime episode he chose in the morning.

He was blown away, Naruto was really cool specially the world, so rich and interesting, waiting a full weak will suck! He got to bed thinking what a cool life it will be if he lived in a place with so many cool things, if only… he would give everything.

"Everything? Really?" a really deep voice asked. Dan opened his eyes and immediately regretted it. Floating before him something resembling one of those oni mask with a sword in between the lips, and crazy white hair looked at him.

"What the f…?!" Dan tried to back from the form but the wall would not allow it.

"I will not hurt you, this is business, you offered "everything" in return to live in the world you call "Naruto" is this correct?" the raspy voice asked.

"I..I guess it's true" Dan whispered.

"DEAL!"

* * *

One blink latter he was on top of the hokage heads looking at the secret village, stunned in disbelief he stood there for some time while the sun slowly rose, trying to wrap his head around what just happened.

He was not in his night suit anymore, instead he was wearing a simple green t-shirt and blue pants, and some kind of weird sandals, he searched in his pockets, and found 2 big heavy coins, they looked golden.

His stomach growled and then it struck him, he had nowhere to sleep, no fridge to assault when he was feeling peckish, nothing. He had no time to look at the views or to grieve over his past. God! Do they even talk English in Konoha? After some searching and desperation he found a set of metal ladders to get down on one side of the monument, he struggled a bit with the sandals for a while, but managed to get to town.

He talked to and old lady, and to his relieve he could understand her, they were not talking English but it seems that demon thing was not a total bastard after all. She probably thought the boy was a foreign visitor his blond hair not being very common in Konoha, and was very nice and helpful. Turns out that the coins were really valuable but no one used them any more in Konoha with the rise of bills. He got directions for the leaf bank and got 2.000.000 ryo in bills in exchange for his gold. "Holy shit I'm rich!" the banker laughed, it was not reassuring.

"That will be 200 ryo" the young girl said, he gave the cashier a 10.000 bill she looked a bit annoyed. 200 ryo for 2 rice balls, the cheapest food he could find in the small convenience store. If 100 ryo where around 1 dollar of buy power, he had 20.000 dollars worth of money, he was not rich. "Fuck"

This made for some heavy thinking, he didn't know how much the money had to last him, staying at a hotel like he planed was not a very good idea in the long run, so the hunt for a place to stay started.

Turns out even in a cool anime world a 15-year old with no references or even any form or ID had a tough time finding a decent place to rent. He ended up hastily exiting the real estate agency after the lady told him to "wait here" after he failed to show his Konoha visa.

It was already getting dark when he found a rundown apartment building with a sign reading "Apartments for rent". The building landlord was old and grumpy, when he discovered that he was from out of Konoha he insisted he only could rent an apartment from the upper floor, Dan saw a feint grin when he told him, he attributed it to the fact that there was no elevator, but the rent was a cheap 15.000 ryo a month and 2 months bail.

He barely could believe his luck wen after showing the apartment, a kitchen-living room, attached a very small bathroom and an equally small room with a bed, the landlord eagerly gave him the contract and a pen got him to sign and pay the first month in advance and was out of there without a single reasonable question like how the hell he was. After the long day, he was tired and noticed he didn't even got a blanket or sheets, he missed his mother, the last thought he had before sleeping in the couch was "well at least get to be a shinobi, like Naruto and do cool things"

* * *

"You can't train to be a Konoha shinobi boy, you are way too old" Dan looked at the desk chunin in disbelief. "If you have previous training you could try to apply for the ninja corps, after being checked by the intelligence department of course" a chill shock the man "But if you lack the skills you are too old. Sorry boy if you wanted to be a shinobi why don't you started sooner anyway?"

Dan was silent for a moment "There are no shinobi where I come from sir" this fucking demon, really fuck him over with this.

The man on the desk was moved by the sad face the boy was giving him "Look boy if you really want to try to be a shinobi you can try to get someone to train you, basic academy lessons are not really under secrecy after all, we had to kill all the failed students otherwise" the teen seam to light up a bit "But I warn you learning to be a shinobi is not easy, specially at your age it will probably take years"

"Are you interested in giving some lessons then?" Dan asked smiling lightly.

"Sorry boy I don't really have the time, even if you find someone willing I reckon it will be kind of expensive" he told the boy apologetically.

"Well it's a start, thank you sir!" He rushed out of the office building that sat next to the hokage tower, letting a smiling chunin behind. Poor boy he will never find someone willing to train someone this being that old.

After a trip to a shopping street, he got home with some new clothes, sheets and groceries. When he almost reached the top of the stair hell his apartment sat on top of, a yellow and orange ball past him running at what must have been 100 miles per hour.

He stopped 3 doors away from his own and started to open the door, he then remembered that he was not able to make the shower work properly. "Hey you wait a second, you happen to know how to operate the shower, I had no luck this morning, just moved in" when the boy turned to look at him he froze, the kid was clearly Naruto, he may only seen one episode but there was no question, he looked younger than he remembered him. It all make sense now, that's why the landlord was so eager to close the deal, no one wanted to live near the boy. Now he better handled this with caution, he didn't know how the story played in the original series after chapter one, but messing with the literal protagonist of this whole world seemed like a pretty dangerous thing to do.

"I got you" he grinned widely "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meat you"

Japanese manners where in order he supposed, "Hi my name is Davis Daniel" it felt

so weird to tell the last name first "but I prefer Dan nice to meet you, so can you help me with the shower?"

"I'm an expert! I fix mine all the time lead the way" they enter the apartment and Naruto found out he didn't open the main valve. Dan flinched at his own stupidity.

"Thank you very much Naruto, if you ever need something my door is open mate. You know a lot of these things being so young, how old are you anyway?"

"I'm almost 10! Yeah I live alone for a while now and mine breaks all the time, yours look brand-new you lucky with the apartment you got I suppose."

"I'm 15, let's be good neighbors, I have to put my things in order we will see each other enough being neighbors." he looked pointedly at the bags. "And thank you again" the boy looked a bit turn down at leaving so soon, but he smiled again.

"Don't worry, I will be Hokage one day after all, helping is part of the job, See you Dan" and he stormed off.

OK that was innocent enough. He started to unpack the groceries when he was not even 1 bag in the task, he heard a firm knock in the door, he went to open to find a guy whit what seemed like a porcelain mask of some kind of animal with the Konoha symbol on it.

* * *

He woke up smelling something horrible in a small office with a simple desk and 2 chairs. A big man with a lot of scars in a black coat and handkerchief pocketed a small flask he was holding in Dans nose, and sat in the other chair. He shuffled through some papers in the desk slowly. "So, Davis Dan is your name right?"

"Y..Yes" He had a massive headache.

"So first thing first" A woman with creepy white eyes entered the room and whispered something to the man "Really?" more whispers "Well perfect then I'm done here"

"Can I go home then?" Dan asked hopefully.

"O no, it seems that you never awoke your chakra system, so we have a better way to know what you know" the silence stretched "everything you know" he said with a smile.

After what felt like hours alone in the room, a man with long blond hair entered the room he sat down and smiled at the boy. "Good afternoon boy, now if you don't mind look me in the eyes will you?" His eyes were blue, only blue. What is it with the creepy eyes in this wor…

Suddenly his life started playing back in his mind some times faster some times slower, it was painful, he lost track of time, after what felt like an eternity he got to the night where he got the visit of floaty demon guy. He returned to the reality, and almost past away from the mental shook. Blue eyes was frozen in place, "the shinigami" he gasped, then he seemed to remember where he was.

Dan was about to ask something but when he made eye contact, it started again.

The time he spent in Konoha passed very slowly, and then it was over, he was back on the chair on the little office like room.

"You really are from another world aren't you?"

Dan was certain the guy just watched his whole life like some kind of sick film, so he opted for the truth.

"Yes sir"

"I will not disclose any information I feel is not relevant for village security rest assured, we the Yamanaka clan are very scrupulous about this kind of things" he paused for a bit "I think the shinigami blocked some things like what made you want to come to our world, it's probably good idea to not defy death itself on its choices, you should tell no one, you understand?"

Dan nodded, so the demon thing was death itself, that doesn't cheer him up much. He felt very relieved it looked like he would skip the whole torture thing, but he was exhausted like he just ran 200 miles while playing 50 chess matches at the same time.

The man got to the door and knocked in a the door in a strange pattern, Dan was barely awake. "He's clean" he said to someone Daniel could not see "I will go to inform the Hokage immediately" muffled voices could be appreciate "yes" he turned to look at Dan and said "My eyes are not creepy, if you manage to be a shinobi we may talk again" with that the man leaved.

A nurse entered with a wheelchair. He hardly managed to sit, and he was only half awake when he was carried to a bed in a small room with a big window, he barely touched the soft bed before he started snorting loudly.

* * *

He woke in the empty room, and drank water from a glass he found next to the bed, after some minutes a nurse checked on him, "OK" she looked at some papers "Daniel, walk a bit and if you don't feel dizzy you may go home, don't try to leave Konoha, someone from the hokage office will contact you shortly"

Dan stood up, and he felt good enough, and followed the exit signs, a chunin in a desk checked him in a security control at the exit, and he was good to go. He had to ask his way around to find his home again, he entered his apartment with a sigh, the whole fantasy world thing was not like he had imagined it.

He had to throw away some fresh things that still stood on the kitchen table, and made his bed with the new sheets, and was debating the merits of just sleeping another 10 hours when someone rang at the door. There we go again he thought, o well no way around it.

What he doesn't expected was to find the Hokage at his door.

"Good afternoon Daniel, may I come in?" Dan slowly sidestepped, the man entered and sat in a kitchen chair. "I hope you don't mind I sit"

"No sir, I mean no Hokage-sama"

"I'm very old, so I hope you don't mind I go straight to the point. You entered Konoha in an illegally, we know now that you have no ill intentions towards us, but the protocol would be to kick you out" Dan didn't want to think what that meant for him he barely knew even from Konoha, "But" hope started rising "You happen to have chosen an interesting place to live" he had a feeling he knew where this was going "I understand yesterday you meet your little neighbor"

"Yes Naruto was kind enough to show me how to use the building water supply" He said slowly.

"He is a good lad, just like his old man" the hokage said more to himself then to Dan "The fact is the boy is not well liked around the village, but his pride will not allow him to ask for help to often. Here is the deal, you will keep and eye on Naruto and inform me regularly, and in exchange you get to live in Konoha"

"I will do it!" He immediately responded.

"On a more cheerful note, I hear of your interest in the shinobi arts, you may or may not be too old to learn. Ho knows? But Konoha is willing to offer you 2 hours tutoring a week" Dans

hopes peaked "at a price of course, let's say 2000 ryo per hour, that's 12.000 monthly"

"I will need to get a job" man this sucked, he started to miss high school.

"I want your report, all Mondays at 10, after it you will get your training" he stood up "Don't get the wrong impression, fail to report in and there will be consequences" he walked to the door "Before I forget" he smiled and gave the boy a card, it was a Konoha ID whit his name on it "You will need to get to administration to get the photo made. Welcome to Konoha, citizen"

* * *

**I think I did all the prep work to start with the story.**

**If you read this far Thank you!**


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